Some EX Kwikasair / Comet 8 wheelers

The last 18 years before i retired was spent with Alltrans Bulk Div Chullora

driving EX Kwikasair / Comet 8 wheelers delivering bricks for Zacuba Brick works.

If things were slack or what ever we would do a bit with the tanker div where

they were using EX Kwikasair SARs under the tanks.

When i say " using" what i mean is , what ever branch ordered trucks , what ever colour

they were painted, & what ever fleet No was allocated to them, they all "" belonged""

to, & were maintained by TNT Equipment .

I dont know when that started , but was the case from when i had my first trot with them.

Tied every thing up for tax purposes, but the branches paid a tidy sum for their use .

Alltrans Chullora used at least 14 / 8 wheelers that i knew of.

Assuming that the basic fleet Nos stayed the same they were................

814 , 815 / 819 / 820 / 821 / 822, all with 8v71 donks.

As far as i know the 871 was pretty good on the parcels

unlike Ansetts , who were peed of with them because of piston problems

Then there was 834 / 835 / 836 / 837 / 838 / All with 6/92 donks that gave

a fair run. Then was 843 / 844 / 845 . With later 6/92 donks which

gave a heap of problems main bearing wise for what ever reason.

They would chew out the centre mains, the slippers would turn in the block,

cut of the oil supply to the crank & stuff every thing. 843 & 845 both stuffed

2 donks a piece. I was driving 844 & managed to pick up the vibration early

enough to have new mains fitted without damage. In the 12 years i was in it ,

it had 2 sets of mains & 1 in frame rebuild. Some short time after i left it seized

the donk & stuffed every thing.
……………………..Billy...…………………...

Heres 819, I was in it for 4 years (thats not a mobile , thats my itchy ear)





All these had the 15 R/R changed from O/D back to a direct box.

as well as dropping top speed ,it also lowered all the ratios which

was good considering some of the lousy sites we were expected to get into.

814 was fitted with a bouble bubble set up & was used at Hooker Sands to deliver

foundry sand. The rest of the trucks had cranes & brick bodys fitted.

814, 815, 819, 820, 821, 822 retained the t / bar rear ends, BUT the t/ bars were too floaty

for the bricks & used to destroy the packs making it hard to unload.

So all the rest had the crow bars turfed out & a locally made 4 spring set up fitted.

The extreme ends of the springs had a 90 degree rocker fitted with a connecting rod

joining the two (one on each side of the truck) Under braking it would load up the

rear axle (definately no axle hop) accelloration would load up the front drive (so they said)

Made it a great off road set up.Leylands had some thing similar but a lot more levers.

Unfortually i dont have S/Ns , Even though i had the occasional look i never wrote any thing

down , at the time all these trucks meant was a means to put bread on the table.

Not my photo,but thanks to who ever took it .





You could say that this is what 819 might have looked like before it had bricks on its back.

A pan full of parcels is a diffrent proposition to a load of bricks.

With the pan, a flick of the wheel would have the thing leaning over & the out side bars

bottomed as you entered the corner. Try that with a load of bricks.

The brick packs had no pallets , sitting straight on the deck & relying on the bottom row

staying in situ so the grab could pick up the pack.

So.....you soon learned to slow down a bit after you unloaded 4700 bricks by hand

especially on a hot summer day
………………...Billy...…………………….

Ah yes , The old Tacograph key.





I do now regret not keeping some of the momentos that were in the glove boxes etc

old & new taco cards ,Kwikasair paperwork & docket books.

A camera also wasnt very high on the agenda unfortunately.
………………………….Billy...………………………..

Was it a Goth suspension fitted in place of the torsion bars Billy

This is 838 ( 3 years in this)





When these came off the parcel runs , the pans came off , the 4 spring rear suspension

was fitted , the box changed to direct , brick bodies & cranes fitted, a coat of paint &

went to work for another stint & this time it was really hard yakka

While i was in 819 the fleet was running out of Budd wheels (cracking) so a set of adaptors

were bolted onto the existing 10 studs, spider rims were used then, & this gave the fleet

12 spare wheels.

819 was sold to a company driver who carried on as a company subby. He spent a fair bit

of dough on it , fitting 6 spoke spiders that looked a whole lot better than the adaptors.

turfed out the 8v/71 & fitted an 8v/92t. when he left i have no idea what happened to it.

Jimbo,I dont really remember ............but thinking thinking you could be spot on

Billy ... BX815 I believe was driven then bought by a fella named Barlow .... Ken or Ray, I can't remember at the moment .... When he bought it I think it became BX833 ....

Werk,

Yeah, your spot on, Kenny Barlow was the bloke. &

819 was bought by Greg Gallagher (the general)
......................Billy............

Ahh yep must have been his old man Ray that drive the very first lot of ghosts then.

Sent you a PM BillyP